


Working Title

by choriarty



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 12:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/638859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choriarty/pseuds/choriarty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Cale was a rookie police officer before he was part of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the story of how he joined is different every time he tells it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Working Title

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bearfeathers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearfeathers/gifts).



It was at this point in time a universal fact that paperwork was the worst thing anyone could be burdened with ever. It was terrible and painful and nobody liked it. If someone said they did they were lying and trying to shove their report-induced regrets down into the farthest pits of their heart.

A pity, really.

Colin Cale, on the other hand, would happily admit that he detested paperwork. He detested how they were always overdue (his fault), how they would pile on his desk (his fault also), and the smell (not his fault). Sure, they smelled like regular, old printer paper to anyone else with half of their sanity left, but Colin Cale made it loud and clear to his friends in the office that they smelled like someone had decided to rub Mr. Lube’s ass on it.

Nobody at HQ thought it was funny, and they could think of several better descriptive names. They decided to stay silent on the subject and ignore the man whenever he brought it up. It was for the best, for his jokes were not.

Cale was one of the younger officers in the police force, and by younger it meant he was the youngest. He in fact set a record for the youngest officer hired at that station in the middle of nowhere. He had big dreams for a boy from a small town, and everyone who met him knew he was crazy enough to catch them one day.

It all began as most good stories do, with an adventure no one asked for.

That did not mean it was unwelcome.

Colin Cale, fresh from his police officer training, stood at the edge of a crater. Two seconds ago it was not there, and then it was. Obviously since he was the protagonist, Colin had to check it out. The cruiser was several metres away, the engine still running, as he bent down to take a better look. He squinted and held a hand up to shield his eyes from the glaring sun.

The radio in the car buzzed and whirred, scratchy voices talking over it. It seemed that the officer was not the only one who saw it land. The dust cleared after a few more seconds and Colin’s eyes widened like a deer in headlights. He cried out in surprise and fell backwards, landing on his rear and stirring up more dirt. A person climbed out of the hole after him, wearing a dark blue police uniform. It had dark brown eyes and short black hair, cut in something smart and proper for the uniform.

It was Colin.

The young officer whipped out his pistol and pointed it at the impostor, his eyes wide with shock. There was a small glint of fear in them, but he was a police officer goddammit. The child prodigy, they called him! Colin masked his face with determination and steadied his aim.

“Freeze!” he ordered. The stranger did not, and instead took another step forwards.

“I said freeze!” Officer Cale cocked the hammer. The impostor opened its mouth in a robotic movement and out came an identical “I said freeze!” almost like a record playing back what he had said only seconds ago.

Colin shuddered. “St-stop where you are!”

“Stop where you are!” it repeated in his voice.

“I’m a dumbass.” The officer grinned.

“I’m a dumbass.”

Colin chuckled before he was grabbed and hauled up by the collar of his uniform, immediately cutting off the noise. He struggled and grunted before bringing his arm up and pistol whipping the offender. There was a sickening crunch, but still the imposter held. It made his insides do a backflip. Colin had no choice; he pressed the barrel of his gun against the side of the creature’s head and pulled the trigger. Gore burst from the exit wound and blood ran down its face.

It still stared at Colin with dead eyes and held with an iron grip. Fear flooded his thinking processes and he cried out for help or backup. No one was around. The monster dressed as the other man raised a hand high above his head and opened its mouth.

“Dumbass.” the word came out like a broken record. Its hand whipped downwards and Colin remembered no more.

\- - -

When Colin Cale opened his eyes, he had to blink a number of times before he could see. Darkness lingered on the edge of his vision and there were flashes of a blinding white whenever he moved his head. He groaned and tried to sit up only to wince and give up, laying back down onto the bushes he was apparently sitting in. As he recovered he tried to recall the past day’s events, rubbing his temples like they did in the movies. He remembered a boring patrol, the morning shift being dumped onto him by another officer, something loud. A gunshot? Yes- there was a gunshot- but that was later. What happened before then? A crash? Something landed in the field.

Colin opened his eyes once more and observed his surroundings. The sky was dark and clear, no clouds to be seen, and stars twinkled here and there as if they had no care in the universe (which they might not, he never knew). The bushes were poking at his sides and irritating his skin so he decided to stand up at last. He winced and sucked in a breath through his teeth as he sat up, he must have a concussion. It was almost as if his brains were sloshing around in his head like an egg yolk that had been broken and was now mixing in with the other juices. He stuck his tongue out at the unnecessary metaphor and grunted as he got up. The world spun on for a minute more before he was able to walk and he made his way towards the buildings.

Houses and shops stood no less than a mile away and the officer did not have very long to go. As he staggered his way across the dusty ground, he felt his headache lift lightly. It was still obviously there, but not so painful. Colin thought of the office, how his team always bought donuts just to keep up the stereotype of police officers being crazy for that stuff. They drove to the shop in their cruiser with grins plastered onto their faces and watched as the kids giggled and joked when they thought they were not listening.

The phantom taste of a chocolate glazed donut was in his mouth as he stepped onto the pavement and was immediately grabbed by the arm. He flinched hard and saw stars flash before his eyes as he did so. Colin quickly reminded himself to not make any sharp movements to avoid passing out before he looked to the stranger holding him.

He had a buzz cut, black hair barely long enough to cover any skin on his head. He had caramel skin and a blemish-free face. The man looked young, but not as young as Colin. He wore a clean pressed black suit like those super agents in movies and carried himself like one as well.

“Who are you?” he asked in a condescending voice. Officer Cale did not like him already.

“I could ask you the same,” he said, returning the stranger’s hard stare. The man was examining him! What the hell?

“No one has been in or out of the crash site since we closed it off,” the suit continued as if Colin had not say anything. “We searched the crater, where did you come from?”

They watched each other for a moment, neither budging an inch. Then Colin yanked his arm away and the other man did not resist, just watching as he rubbed the grabbed spot as if it had left a bruise. Both knew it had not.

“You-” The stranger choked back whatever he was going to lecture Colin about and his eyes widened, turning softer. “You’re bleeding.”

He reached for the spot on the officer’s head that was matted with flakes of dry and sticky blood. The police officer froze and watched as time seemed to slow down, the caring hand moving towards the injury.  
“Agent Garrett!” someone called. Both of the men snapped out of whatever kind of moment they were having, and ‘Garrett’ returned to business mode. “What have you got there? Hey, who is this guy?”

Another suit jogged up and Colin’s suspicions were confirmed. They were some kind of ‘secret agent’ thing, rather that or crazies. Something DID just crash a couple of miles out, anyone could suddenly become self-employed FBI-CIA-DOUBLE-O agents. 

“Officer Cale,” Colin answered for Garrett. “Or Colin. You guys the feds?”

“You could say that,” secret agent number two answered. “Agent Delancy here, and you’ve seemed to have met Agent Garrett.”

Both of them grunted at the same time and then looked at each other. Delancy grinned. “Friends already, great. Now- what brings you here? The rest of the police officers are on their way from the station, why aren’t you with them?” As the agent fired questions at him, he led the officer towards their black car. Garrett opened the door and let him sit in the passenger seat as both of them stood on the pavement, eyes searching for anything amiss.

“I was on the afternoon patrol and there was a loud noise over yonder,” Colin gestured to the crash site, being a professional as possible as his head pounded with each heartbeat. He was a member of the BPD goddammit and it would take his deathbed from him doing his job. “So I went to investigate and then...”

Then a police cruiser pulled up, interrupting the story. A sudden wave of dread washed over Colin Cale and he tugged at Agent Garret’s sleeve, pulling his attention from the newcomers while Delancy watched on, shielding his eyes from the blinding sun.

“Listen,” he hissed “There’s something important you need to know. Something- someone came out from that crater and I saw it. You can interrogate me or question me as much as you want after this is over but just know not to trust appearances.”

“What are you talking about?” The agent whispered back, playing along and acting as if Colin was not there. The windows of the car were blacked out, and therefore no one on the other side would be able to see the man sitting in the passenger seat inside.

“The- whatever it is- it looks like-”

The first police officer stepped out from the cruiser. He wore a blue uniform and hat, his black hair styled in a clean way that matched his overall dress. It was the exact copy of Colin Cale. Agent Delancy’s hair stood on end and he flashed a quick glance at the guest in their car, his eyes saying ‘stay put’ and ‘I will expect an explanation later’. Garrett did not even grace the original with a look.

“What’s going on here?” the Colin copy said.

“Yeah,” another officer filed out of the car. He was older than Colin and had a beer gut, or something that resembled one, most likely something around 40 years old. “We were getting loads of calls from civilians saying an alien had landed out here.”

“No alien then?” A third and fourth cop came out, the third having been the one who spoke. He had fair hair and was tall (at least 6 and a half feet) with glasses, and the other had bright red hair and freckles scattered across his face. Blondie made a mock groan and the ginger elbowed him in the gut, all the while the Colin impostor watching the agents. The original sat in the passenger seat and tried to keep as quiet as possible.

“Afraid not,” Agent Garrett cut in. “But we would appreciate it if you helped keep people away from the site.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” the copy asked, his voice filled with snark. Colin himself thought the impression he was doing was terrible. Sure- he had the attitude-filled tone- but the man would never disrespect authority unless it did not deserve respect, and he never jumped to conclusions about that either.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.,” the agent replied calmly, ignoring the tone. “The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Yeah, I know, it’s long. We get that a lot.”

“Can we at least know what landed there? Or is that-”

“Classified, yes.”

The imposter walked towards Agent Garrett, something dark in his eyes. The agent thought fast and matched his pace, coming out from behind the S.H.I.E.L.D. car and preventing him from catching an eye-full of Colin. The rest of the people only watched, enraptured by the scene. The other cops seemed hesitant to intervene, confused with ‘Officer Cale’s sudden mood change.

“So, you did not see anyone in there?” it asked.

“A person?” Garrett asked, his voice dripping in fake scepticism.

“Yes!” the man growled, becoming frustrated. “What else could I me--”

“Now, officer,” Delancy cut in on the conversation, picking up on the situation unfolding. His hands were in his pockets as if he had all day to do this and his tone was just as fake and mocking as Garrett’s. “Why ever would a person be in there?”

The fake Colin froze and there was a deafening moment of silence. At last, another officer stepped in. “Cale,” he grunted. “Enough of that. I don’t know what in heaven’s name has gotten into you today but we’re heading back to the station. I know you just found out about your father but there’s no need to-”

Agent Garrett’s eyes flickered towards Colin Cale, who flinched when he heard what the other officer said. His muscles tensed and he clenched onto the leather seats until his knuckles whitened. On the other hand, he saw that the young man in front of him had little to no reaction whatsoever. There was a flash of something in his eyes (confusion? panic?) and his eyebrows crinkled. He turned away from the agent to address the man.

“You’re right, let’s go before I make any more of a fool of myself.” he mumbled and waved a dismissive hand. “Sorry about that, agent-guy.”

The police officers got in their car after a couple more light questions and apologies, then drove off. The imposter said nothing more. All three of the men waited until they were gone for sure and then turned their attention to each other.

“You didn’t tell me you had a twin,” Delancy grunted.

“No,” Colin tried to interject. “He’s the-”

“The thing that landed here,” Garrett said for him.

“How do you know?”

The officer raised his hand “I told him.”

“And not me? I’m hurt.”

“You’ll get over it, Delancy.”

And so, Colin Cale explained what happened. They asked questions that sounded routine and commonplace; why was he out there in the first place? (patrol duty thrust upon him by a friend he owed a favour to) why did he not call back up? (honestly did not occur to him as a thing from space crashed onto the Earth right in front of him) and so on and so forth.

By the time he was finished, reinforcements had arrived. Another two suits had shown up, going by Jackson and Coulson, and Garrett had repeated the story to them as the first tended to the officer’s head injury. He looked older than the rest of them, but not too old. One of those people who age mentally and physically but somehow keep a spark of youth inside them. The other was eerily calm about the whole situation, as if he had heard the same kind of excuse from an employee who was late in the morning.

Jackson stepped back and examined his work. “You got a nasty bump on the head, kid, but it won’t be too serious as long as you rest and keep still.”

“Are you kidding me? Keep still? This is gonna suck!”

The older agent and Garrett, who was watching from afar, smiled at the comment. “Well, it’s a minor concussion, so you at least have to make sure it does not turn into a major concussion.”

“But can I still play, coach?”

Delancy laughed at the overused sports-movie line and the others shook their head, though Colin caught a small glint of amusement from Garrett’s eye. Everything seemed somewhat normal, as if the whole meteor thing had never happened. Colin was beginning to take a shine to these fellas, and he was sure that they would be drinking buddies if the group had met in any other situation.

“As long as that thing is still here, walking among civilians and bystanders,” Coulson reminded them, turning the mood grim once more. “We still have a job to do. Right now it doesn’t seem too harmful or dangerous, but that could change at any moment. Your station is in danger as long as your doppelganger is posing as you.”

He was right, and Officer Cale was starting to get anxious. His friends were in there, men who had known him since he was a little kid, people who had had his back in good times and bad. He could name events in his life that had changed him or were important in any way and at least one of them were there.

“Delancy and Jackson, you two go to the station and keep an eye out for anything amiss, but do not go inside. We don’t want to provoke our extraterrestrial visitor. Officer Cale, you can’t under any circumstance be seen by anyone you know. None of your co-workers nor your wife-”

Garrett visibly flinched at the word, but Colin himself was unaffected. He was distracted by something else. He heard something from afar, something like a gunshot, and it was obvious that several of the other agents had heard as well. There was a sick feeling in his gut like acid and he suddenly extended towards the radio in the S.H.I.E.L.D. cruiser. There were several protests and ‘what are you doing’s before the officer tuned it to his police station.

On the line was a heavy-breathed man, relaying statuses and coordinates as he asked for help. He heard a commotion in the background that sounded like fighting and the terrifying noise of someone dying. Colin’s hair stood on end and people who were leaning on one leg stood at attention.

The next fifteen minutes went by in a haze. Agents hurried Colin into the back seat and took their own, loading their pistols and making plans for the worst. Expectations and possible outcomes were spoken of and exchanged, each one flying over the officer’s head. Garrett glanced at him, a somewhat worried expression painted on his face. His eyes flickered over the man’s golden ring and quickly moved on.

Then they arrived at the station. There was silence, the dead kind, and it made a sick feeling rise in Colin’s throat like bile. The one named Coulson ordered the others to take guard at the front door while he called backup, making sure to block all the exits. That woke him up.

“You mean, you aren’t going to help them?” Cale asked incredulously, his voice soaked in an offended tone.

Coulson’s face hardened. “All we would be doing is endangering ourselves. We don’t know what that thing is or what it is capable of, or what it--”

Colin did not wait for the rest of the man’s answer. The passenger seat was open from Delancy having stepped out of it, and so he did follow. There were mixed, loud protests from the agents inside the car, one of whom went after him, but he was a man on a mission. Someone grabbed his wrist and pulled him close. It was Garrett.

“Don’t be an idiot, Cale,” he growled. “You have a head injury and you aren’t even armed.”

In response, Cale moved forwards. He was uncomfortably close to the man’s face, so each could feel the other’s breath on their skin. Both wore determined and stubborn expressions. Then the police officer yanked the gun from Garrett’s holster and cocked it.

“One out of two is good enough for me,” he huffed, showing a cocky smile.

Colin shoved past Delancy, who was standing at the front door of the police station, and he pushed the door open. What he saw rocked him to the core.

Desks were tipped over as barriers, and half of the place was deserted. One step in, he could hear the silence of anxiety and tenseness; two steps, he could smell gunpowder; three steps, he saw someone laying on the floor. Colin gagged at the slick, red liquid splashed on the floor.

“... Rooker?” he whispered, as if the man would answer back. He expected his friend to sit up like he always did when he was caught napping in his cubicle, or to groan and roll over when he had had a long night in the office doing paperwork.

He did not.

Colin’s throat tightened and he pushed himself forwards, determined to find the creature before it killed anyone else. There was another cop around the corner who was backed up against his desk-shield. He caught a look of Officer Cale and his eyes widened like white plates, his gun training on the man.

“No! It’s me, Lien, it’s Colin!” he raised his hands in a gesture of innocence.

“How do I know--?”

“Last Christmas you gave me a book on sex positions and I gave you a-”

“Alright, it’s you.” he sighed, lowering his pistol halfway. “That... thing is still in there. He got Berg in the leg- he’s hauled up over there and he’ll live as long as we get medical attention soon- and... you know about Rooker.” Lien’s expression turned grim.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help,” Cale apologises softly, not knowing what else to say. “He got me first, hitting me upside the head and leaving me out near the crash site, but I could have...”

“You couldn’t have done anything, Cale,” Lien shook his head. “None of us knew what was going to happen, and if you came out any time other than now I’m sure one of us would have arrested you.”

There was a moment of silence- for what, he did not know. He did not know if it was for their fallen friends, their unfortunate situation, or for all the what-ifs and could-haves. There were many things to be silent about at the time.

“You know, he has the chief right now.”

“What?”

Lien stared at him. “That thing has the chief, he’s camped out in the man’s office. We don’t know if he’s dead, alive, or being held hostage. Hey- what are you doing?”

Colin was already on the move. He kept his footsteps hushed as he dipped between the makeshift shields and barriers and his gun by his side, gripped with both hands. His head swam as the dizzy spells returned. His time was limited before he fell over and passed out, knowing his condition.

Then there was a gunshot, and Colin froze as his own voice commanded him to. He slowly looked towards the left to see a barrel pointing at him from his own office. Typical.

“Drop the weapon,” the doppelganger ordered. “Now.”

Cale bent down cautiously and placed the gun on the ground.

“Now kick it to me... good. I thought it would come to this, Colin Cale, but I honestly hoped it would be much later. I should have hit you harder.”

The alien’s face looked to be half-melted off, which it was. If you were watching what was occurring at the station just twenty minutes ago, you would see a scene in which a very unfortunate officer spilled coffee on the impostor. He cried in pain and the bystanders watched as half of his face slipped through his fingers. One, bewildered and stunned, asked if he was okay. It was Rooker, and the man received a bullet in the torso for his worry.

“Everything was going so well...”

“Not well enough for you to keep half of your face.” 

“Don’t make me shoot you.”

“But you’re going to anyways, aren’t you? Go on, do it.”

“Are you craz-”

“What have you got to lose? You lost your costume here, by the looks of it, and you’ve already killed a bunch of other cops. Finish off the fucking job, tough guy, let’s see how far you can fall.”

No response.

“I can tell by the way your face melted that you don’t have a backup plan. No extra body suit in the UFO’s trunk, right? Even if you do have one your plan is already off the rails, whatever the thing was. You’ve been caught in the act, and now you’re only digging your grave deeper.”

Colin is stepping closer and closer to the copy of himself while the thing shakes in fear or realization or something. Soon he is pressing his own forehead to the cold, metal barrel of the gun and staring down the imposter. Their eyes are locked.

“Listen, you little shit,” he continued. “you can put down that gun and we can walk out of here. Me and you, twinsies struttin’ out that door locked arm in arm or whatever the fuck you please. This doesn’t have to be so friggin bloody.”

The alien seemed to harden at this, and his grip on the gun steadied. Colin ducked from the line of fire just as a BANG went out and the sound of a bullet hitting the wood floor could be heard. The officer quickly came back up and grabbed the weapon from his assailant. They wrestled with it for what seemed like minutes, when it was only just seconds. Colin rushed forwards when it was in the air and hit his copy on the forehead with the butt of the pistol. Its hold wavered and he took the chance to yank it.

Just as he did, he had another dizzy spell and his knees buckled. The alien kept a grip on the gun just as Colin did, and forced it to point towards him. He regained his senses long enough to push it in another direction, just as it went off. There was more struggling, and they were pushed backwards until the alien tripped backwards on a toppled over file cabinet. The gun went off and Colin cried out.

\- - -

The alien was dead.

Officer Cale sat in the back of a shiny, black government (thing?) car. His shoulders were draped with a blanket, which would have been nice except it was scratchy as hell and he had tried to shrug it off several time, only to be nagged at by the Garrett guy. He had watched his friends and coworkers be taken off, rather on stretchers or in similar blankets. Many of them climbed into ambulances and went off to be taken care of. Only a handful who were uninjured enough stayed. They came to Colin and asked what the hell happened exactly, and he shrugged and gave his bit. They apologized and the young officer smacked their arms and told them they had nothing to be sorry for.

Then that suit came up to him. The one that had thinning hair (but still managed to look young as hell, what the shit?) gave him a once over and started talking.

“So, you disobeyed potentially higher-than-government super spies?”

“Yeah,”

“Ran into a dangerous battle zone with only a pistol and no backup?”

“I guess,”

“With a concussion?”

“He said it was a minor one,”

“It wasn’t,”

“Okay then, yeah,”

“Why?”

Colin did not have to think about that, even though his head swam. “Because my family was in there. I’ve grown up with those donut-snarfers, like hell I’m going to let some knock-off of me pick ‘em off one by one. Especially if it makes them blame me. Plus, what the hell would happen if it got away? What other families would be hurt?”

There was a moment when both of the men seemed to be sizing each other up, then Coulson smiled. “Have you ever thought about how you would look in one of these suits?”

Colin sat agape for a minute, then a grin spread across his face.

“‘Might need to go to the hospital first.”

Agent Coulson laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY CHRISTMAS, KAY!!! LATE PRESENT WOOOOOOO!!!


End file.
